Crop rotation!

[Pickle]

Another quick question from me! I know from school and from reading books more recnelty about the importance of crop rotation but I'm a little confused by something. I know that some plants/veg do better if sown alongside other plants/veg but I don't know how you then go on to rotate your veg plot the next season. What I mean is, if you plant alternate rows of say onions and carrots what do you class that area as being in the next season because carrots are obviously root veg and onions fron the hungry crop category. Am I making any sense? Just want to know whether this is a good way of doing things as don't want to make my life more difficult next season

[ann-the-nan]

crop rotation

Yes, see what you mean. I have just got the hang of rotation, and I work a three bed system.
In one of the beds - just as an example- I put legumes. (peas & beans etc.).
Next year it is brassicas. The final year is roots. No matter which of those you start on, keep the routine identical.
I looked up onions in my book of everything and onions are not mentioned in any of those catagories, but it does say not to put them in the same bed twice. I am going to risk the root bed for mine - unless one of the viners knows what the proper answer is.

[Pickle]

If my beds ever arrive I'll have a 3 bed system too. Maybe it will just be a case of trial and error on my part but on the whole try and stick to those 3 main groups.
I never knew there was so much to growing vegetables until I started

[zazen999]

Try looking at these threads.


http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ion_27381.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ing_27135.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ion_28700.html

[FionaH]

Just to confuse the issue, I read you can have a permanant onion bed!

[blossom]

There seem to be so many books/ webistes out there with different rules on crop rotation. It certainly is confusing!

[Pumpkin Becki]

Just to confuse the issue, I read you can have a permanant onion bed!

That's interesting Fi, I thought Onions were one of the worst offenders, what with white rot and so on.

[zazen999]

There seem to be so many books/ webistes out there with different rules on crop rotation. It certainly is confusing!

It really isn't. It's very simple.

Split your crops into the main groups.

Grow each group together.

Don't grow the same group in the same area the next year.

Pair up crops that aren't susceptible to disease with one group [usually the one that you have less of] and keep them together as you move the crops.

It doesn't matter the order, but people decide for example to grow brassica after peas/beans to take advantage of the nitrogen that they leave behind.

[zazen999]

Just to confuse the issue, I read you can have a permanant onion bed!

You can, but some people keep this up by treating the soil with ***** fluid, giving very strange tasting onions. If they are for show, then it doesn't really matter.

[Alison]

My onions will be rotating round with everything else. I'm in the process of building 12 raised beds (each 10' by 4', 6 finished, 2 dug and 4 to start!) for a 4 year rotation. The onions (also garlic, shallots etc) will be in their own bed and rotated with the roots as that's where I've got most space. However, I do know a lot of people keep them with the peas and beans too but I need a lot of space for the amount of peas I want to eat.

[Snadger]

Or you could forget everything you've learned about growing in rows or beds or blocks!
Just like I am doing this year using Geoff Hamiltons ideas for the Ornamental Kitchen Garden.

You can still have your 4 foot wide beds but don't fill them up with one type of veg, but many types of veg and flowers all higgledy piggledy.

It takes a lot of unlearning of crop rotaional systems that were originally devised for farmers on huge acreages........to adoption of a decorative and more natural way of growing!

In a nutshell......harvest a crop....muck or lime the pocket (depending on follow on crop) and plant a dissimilar crop. Many small pockets of various plants followwed by small pockets of dissimilar plants, combined together in each bed......what could be simpler!

[roadkill]

so do onions go with the roots or the legumes ???

also which group does sweetcorn and leeks belong to?

[Eyren]

so do onions go with the roots or the legumes ???

I put onions in with carrots - the smell of the foliage is supposed to keep carrot root fly away, and since they are both small plants you can fit quite a lot into a small space. Some people reckon that legumes don't like onions and will grow poorly if planted too close to them, but I've not tested it myself. OTOH I haven't had much carrot root fly damage, so I'm sticking with the onion/carrot combo!

I think "roots" is a very misleading category when it comes to rotation, as it covers several botanical families. Here are some "root" crops and their non-root family members:

* Onions and garlic - leeks and spring onions
* Potatoes - tomatoes and peppers
* Beetroot - chard and spinach
* Carrots, parsnips and celeriac - parsley
* Turnip, swede, kohl rabi, radish - cabbage, broccoli, kale, pak choi, etc

Apart from the potatoes, I tend to put root crops in with leafy crops of the same family, as long as they like similar conditions. There are some exceptions, such as celeriac, which likes really wet ground, so I put that in next to something else that I will need to water a lot, like runner beans, and keep my carrots a bit drier!

Snadger has a point about growing things mixed together, though. Most soil diseases can easily migrate the short distance between typical allotment beds, so bed-by-bed rotation isn't going to make a huge difference. The main reason is to balance out the nutrients, and if you are feeding the soil with plenty of organic matter, that won't be a problem anyway.

I've just been reading Geoff Hamilton's "Cottage Gardens", and apparently veg wasn't grow in neat rows until the horse-drawn seed drill was invented by Jethro Tull (the 18th century gardener, not the rock band!!). Before then it was scattered ("broadcast") randomly by hand...

also which group does sweetcorn and leeks belong to?

Leeks are members of the onion family (try nibbling a raw one!). Sweetcorn doesn't belong to the same family as most other common veg, so you can fit it in wherever you like. Lots of folks grow them with squash or salad leaves, to cover the ground between the corn stalks and suppress weeds.